"Rascally Riley" by Alli Paterson

Sometimes mothers need to stop and smell the roses, and with my second child Riley I have to do this often, to remind myself that it must be so hard being number two, you want to be big like your brother but that it is also safe being a baby. Riley is at the threshold, teetering on the edge, he is actually way past baby and almost past toddler but he is holding on tight. So sometimes I have to let go of the frustration he causes me and step back and see the little boy that makes me laugh and gives great cuddles.

I chose Riley as my subject as he matched that stamp alphabet so well! it was more than that though, the layout shows his restraint and the layout has little bits of chaos and calm woven together to reflect the Riley we know, I do scrap Riley's screaming fall down arguments and tanties but this type of photo shows a serious little man trying to work it all out way too soon.

Buzz and Bloom Billy the Kid Alphabet stamps
Buzz and Bloom Tubby Junior Chipboard Alphabet
Buzz and Bloom Round Corner Flourish

The chipboard alphabet has a flat surface which makes the letters so easy to cover and trim. Once the title was stuck to my paper and I used a craft knife to trim it off, I needed to do very little sanding. It was more to add a distressed effect than clean up any little overhanging bits of paper.

The Flourish is also flat. I painted this one, to add a little shine and and as a nice sealer I added 1/3 liquitex gloss medium to 2/3 acrylic paint, the paint is straight out of the tube, amazingly I had an exact match to Riley's shirt in Jo Sonja's colony blue. Once it had dried I used a manuscript stamp and a blue ink and stamped over it before defining the edges with a white pen. The flourish over laps three parts of the design, the scalloped bazzill, the patterned paper and the photo, bringing all three together making them flow into each other and not taking your initial gaze from the focus subject which is Riley's face. In design you have an initial item you want to be the focus of the page, then what is around the focus item to compliment it but not over power it.

These were my first set of unmounted stamps and I see now why you trim as close to the stamp as possible, it makes it far easier to line them up when you add them to an acrylic block and add them to your work. The font was a perfect match to this photo, Riley is such a boy. The stamps have great detail and look fantastic in white on the darker background of the photo.